A Fair Share for Children Preventing the Loss of a Generation to Covid-19 2 a Fair Share for Children
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN PREVENTING THE LOSS OF A GENERATION TO COVID-19 2 A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A Fair Share for Children: Preventing the loss of a generation to COVID-19 was produced by the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation on behalf of the Laureates and Leaders for Children Steering Committee. We would like to acknowledge the work of staff for their contributions to this report including lead writer and editor Shaharazad Abuel-Ealeh, Owain James, Priyanka Ribhu, Anjali Kochar, Niharika Chopra, and Georgia Potton. We would also like to extend our thanks to Daksh Sharma, Karan Singh, Anisha Grover, Pranav Mittal, Prakriti Roy, Rohan Misra, and Bain & Company. KSCF would also like to thank all of the partners and organisations that have contributed to the report and/ or the concept of a Fair Share for Children including the 100 Million campaign; the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE); the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action; Billian Music Family Resource and Leadership Centre; I CAN South Sudan; Peter Kwasi Kodjie and Samuel Adonteng on behalf of the All-Africa Students' Union; Dr. Musarrat Maisha Reza on behalf of the Commonwealth Students' Association; Fred van Leeuwen on behalf of Education International; Edvardas Vabuolas on behalf of the Organising Bureau of School Student Unions; Sebastian Berger on behalf of the European Students' Union; Alanna Santos Mangueira on behalf of 100 Million campaign Brazil; Amar Lal; Abza Bharadwaj; Eirliani Rahman; Winnie Nyandiga; Sean Counihan; Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the Global March Against Child Labour. KSCF would like to reiterate its thanks to all the Laureates and Leaders including the Steering Committee Members: Lorena Castillo Garcia, HE José Ramos-Horta, HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Kerry Kennedy and Kailash Satyarthi. Design by Sue MacDonald, SMD Design. Cover image: © Riccardo Niels Mayer Copyright: KSCF-US 2020 All rights reserved. 1440 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20005, United States 3 A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN LAUREATES AND LEADERS FOR CHILDREN Laureates and Leaders for Children is a growing calling for increased financing for global education. movement of visionary leaders across diverse fields of Their letter was referred to during the declaration by expertise and influence, committed to working together the Secretary-General during the 2015 Oslo Summit on to inspire the international community to globalise Education for Development, which subsequently saw compassion for the world’s most vulnerable children. the establishment of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, now known as Initially convened by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash the Education Commission. Satyarthi, Laureates and Leaders for Children was formally established in 2016 following commitments After this initial impact, Laureates and Leaders for and actions taken for the benefit of marginalised Children has grown its network of Nobel Laureates and children by the Nobel Laureate Class of 2014. This world leaders to become an internationally influential included a written intervention made by 15 Nobel platform for the rights of children to be free, safe, and Laureates to the United Nations Secretary-General educated, everywhere. RIPPLE EFFECT OF LAUREATES AND LEADERS FOR CHILDREN • The International Labour Organization’s Convention • Kailash Satyarthi organised the Bharat Yatra, a 12,000km No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour is the first ever march across 22 states in India in the autumn of 2017 universally ratified ILO Convention. (2020) galvanised public support for strengthening laws against child rape and trafficking, resulting in the amendment of • Following strong advocacy and with the looming target of India’s Criminal Law stipulating very stringent punishment eliminating child labour in all its forms by 2025, the year for child rape. (2018) 2021 has been designated as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, putting the global spotlight • OECD’s Secretary-General Angel Gurría committed on child labour and modern slavery. (2020) to incorporating the wellbeing of children into OECD measures and indicators of inclusive growth. At the G20 • Laureates and Leaders for Children made a clarion call Summit 2017, he called for the world’s governments to to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with support Laureates and Leaders for Children, reiterating emphasis on the wellbeing of children, prohibition of child the need for urgent action to end slavery and ensure all slavery and all forms of violence against children, during children are educated. The result was a report released the 17th Nobel Peace Laureates’ Summit in Mexico. (2019) in November 2019 by OECD and the ILO on child labour in • His Holiness Pope Francis, Chancellor of Germany HE global supply chains.1 (2017, 2019) Angela Merkel, HE Erna Solberg the Prime Minister of • Former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard and the Norway, HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar, and Global Partnership for Education (GPE), of which she is the HE Mauricio Macri the former President of Argentina Chairperson, will examine the links between child labour, pledged their support to the Dead Sea Declaration’s call slavery and economic growth in a global study. (2017) for a legally binding UN convention against online child sexual abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, and child • Since the 100 Million campaign was formally launched in trafficking. (2019) India at the culmination of the 2016 Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit, it has grown to 35 countries, with • The then-First Lady of Panama Lorena Castillo Garcia young people running local, national, and international shared the 2018 Dead Sea Declaration (Laureates and events and campaigns calling for a world where all Leaders’ for Children 2nd Summit outcome document) children are free, safe and educated. (2016 – present) with UN Secretary-General António Guterres. (2018) 1 OECD and ILO, accessed 26 August 2020. https://www.oecd.org/ fr/corruption/ending-child-labour-forced-labour-and-human- trafficking-in-global-supply-chains.htm 4 A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 RECOMMENDATIONS 8 2. COVID-19: A PERFECT STORM FOR A CHILD RIGHTS DISASTER 12 2.1 COVID-19 is emerging to be the most significant pandemic of the last 150 years 12 2.2 Global economic outlook 12 2.3 Unemployment and poverty 14 2.4 Food insecurity 15 2.5 Violence in the community and at home 16 2.6 The perfect storm 18 3. A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN 21 3.1 HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES PLEDGE US$8.02 TRILLION IN BAILOUTS 21 3.2 A fraction of these funds are targeted towards the 20% most vulnerable children 22 4. THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MARGINALISED CHILDREN: THE POTENTIAL FOR AN ENDURING CRISIS 27 4.1 Overall impact 27 4.2 Child labour, slavery, trafficking, and commercial sexual exploitation 30 4.3 Child hunger 37 4.4 Children on the move 40 4.5 Education 42 4.6 Risk of reversing progress on child-focused SDGs 45 4.7 What impact would a ‘fair share’ have? 48 5. CALL TO ACTION 52 RECOMMENDATIONS 53 ANNEX 1: HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES DEFINED FOR THIS REPORT 54 ANNEX 2: COSTING FOR OVERALL RECOMMENDATIONS 54 5 A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN © Riccardo Niels Mayer 6 A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The COVID-19 pandemic has affected How is this possible when there have been so many big policy responses to COVID-19? the entire world, but far from being An external analysis conducted for this report shows an ‘equaliser’, it has demonstrated that US$8.02 trillion3 has been announced in COVID-19 that marginalised communities are fiscal relief by high-income countries in just six months of 2020. When monetary relief is included, this escalates the least able to practise protective to over US$17 trillion, of which the G7 countries alone measures against the virus and its have announced over $14 trillion.4 Despite these impacts, and has exacerbated many unprecedented amounts allegedly intending to support the global economy, it will not touch the majority of of the inequalities they have long the people who work in it. Just a fraction has been faced. This is being entrenched by allocated to those whose lives are most at stake from the multidimensional impacts of COVID-19. the inequality of the world’s response Before the pandemic, almost 20% of the world’s children to date, which has seen trillions were living in extreme poverty.5 Yet far from receiving announced for the richest parts of 20% of the bailout, our analysis demonstrates that only the world and very little for the most 0.13% of it has been allocated to multilateral COVID-19 appeals for those most vulnerable to the virus itself and marginalised children. the pandemic-induced economic crisis.6 For the poorest countries, their share of the COVID-19 response has been More than one billion people live in informal ‘slum’ smaller than many private companies, and even the little settlements and tens of millions of refugees and funding they have received has been predominantly internally displaced persons live in overcrowded, through loans rather than aid. makeshift camps – all situations in which it is impossible to social distance. Over one and a half billion people have no bank accounts, and hundreds of millions of them are daily labourers who have lost their income since the shutdown began. The UN’s World Food Programme has warned of a famine of ‘biblical proportions’ in the coming months,2 yet there is enough 3 Elgin, C., Basbug, G., Yalaman, A. (2020). Economic Policy Responses to a Pandemic: Developing the COVID-19 Economic Stimulus Index. Covid food – people just cannot afford to buy it. Some social Economics: Vetted and Real Time Papers, 3, 40-54., See Table 1 in this protection measures exist for almost half of the world’s report.